Urza’s Destiny - Widely considered one of the most powerful sets in MtG, Destiny followed Urza as he engineered a crew to fly his skyship to fight Phyrexia, and Phyrexia’s creation of the plane of Rath to use as a staging ground in the invasion of Dominaria. The set expanded on the Echo mechanic, giving the cards abilities when they entered or left play, making it sometimes advantageous to not pay the cost. The set’s story expands on Urza’s attack on Phyrexia, as the demonic black plane attempts to invade Dominaria. Urza’s Legacy - Legacy was the first set to print premium foil cards, which could be any card from the set, printed with a reflective shine, and taking th e place of a common in the booster pack. It also had several spells that, upon resolution, returned the mana spent on them to the mana pool. Echo makes you pay the casting cost of a creature a second time, or else sacrifice it. Cycling allows you to pay to discard a card in your hand and draw a new one. As a set, several new mechanics were introduced. Red shows Urza’s alliance with Shiv, black shows his attack on phyrexia, white shows his recuperation in se rra’s realm, green shows a preview of the war leading to the ice age, and blue shows Urza founding the academy in Tolaria. Urza’s Saga - This set was the first to separate colors in time, having each color display part of the story separate from the others. Rather than follow the storyline of the Rath cycle, the Artifact cycle worked as a prequel, explaining how things went from the end of the brother’s war to the beginning of the Rath cycle. It also contains the first card ever banned before the set was released, Memory Jar. This resulted in a period known as Combo Winter, a time when many cards were banned or restricted, to limit these powerful combos. The block had a large number of combo ab ility cards, resulting in decks that could often win by turn three, if not on the first turn. Known as the Artifact block, the Urza’s sets were driven as much by enchantments as they were by artifacts. Exodus was notable for it’s changes to card design more than it was for it’s cards. It was also the first set to add a collector’s number to the cards, under the copyright and artist information. Stronghold’s set symbol is a portcullis.Įxodus - Third set in the Rath block, Exodus was the first set to make rarity visible on the card itself, as shown by the color of it’s set symbol. It also included the Spikes, a type of creature that comes into play with 0/0 power and toughness, but a set of +1/+1 counters, which can be distributed to other creatures. Stronghold cards continued the set trends of having buyback and shadow, and introduced the En-Kor creatures, which inadvertently started a n infinite-life combo. Stronghold - The second set in the Rath Cycle, Stronghold follows the pursuit of the Legacy as it’s tracked into Volrath’s stronghold. Tempest’s set symbol is a cloud with lightning. Creatures with Shadow also made their appearance here creatures with Shadow can only block or be blocked by other creatures with Shadow. Buyback was an extra cost that could be paid when casting a spell, which would cause the spell to return to your hand rather than go to the graveyard when cast. Among the cards introduced were Slivers, creatures that share their abilities with all other slivers, as well as cards with Buyback. It was the first set to have a large power increase from the previous sets, and many of it’s cards became instant staples. Tempest - Released in 1997, Tempest was the first stand-alone set in the Weatherlight Saga, the story arc that spanned more than four years of Magic the Gathering history.

Mirrodin itself was a plane created by Karn, one of the characters from this set of blocks. Even today, with the just-released Scars of Mirrodin, the plot affects the game. Everything from the beginning of the Phyrexian Invasion to the final Apocalypse was set on Dominaria. The plane of Dominaria was the center of the plot for several years, with each MtG Card Set centering around some aspect of it’s timeline.

Mtg card sets symbol in order